


The Ghost who owned SHIELD

by KingsOnThrones



Series: Sleep deprivated fanfic's that make no sense whatsoever [12]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky escaped earlier, Bucky is the Director of Shield, Howard Stark's Bad Parenting, Hurt Tony Stark, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Minor Violence, Protective Bucky Barnes, Younger Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:40:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21993088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KingsOnThrones/pseuds/KingsOnThrones
Summary: Bucky escaped HYDRA two months before December 16, 1991. Now he’s trying to build a life for himself, adjust to the fancy-ass new world that was the future he’s found himself in. He saved not just himself along the way.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark
Series: Sleep deprivated fanfic's that make no sense whatsoever [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1538635
Comments: 8
Kudos: 270





	The Ghost who owned SHIELD

After his trial in which he was declared innocent of the crimes he committed as the Winter Soldier, Bucky single-handedly took down all of HYDRA, until it was nothing more than a smouldering, ugly stain upon his past. He knew he could never get that ashy, shadowy patch off of him, but he could at least try to learn to live with it. He took solace in knowing he, at least, burned every HYDRA hide-out -and everyone belonging to it- to the _fucking_ ground.

When he came back, a year later, he re-joined the army. Because what else was he gonna do in this weird future. -Bucky felt utterly betrayed that there weren’t any flying cars yet.- Within two years he worked his way up to being a General, because, let’s be honest, he was really overqualified. Within three years he won a Purple Heart and with it his retirement.

But Bucky was never one to sit quietly. When he did, his mind went back to what he’d done for all those years. If he could avoid thinking about it, he would. So, he signed up for SHIELD. Founded by Peggy Carter after the Second World War, with the help of Howard Stark and Chester Phillips, who died in 1970. Again, Bucky was far to overqualified. Within five years, in 2000, Peggy and Howard named him Shield’s new Director upon their retirement.

That is how Bucky found himself in the Stark Mansion and a fancy dinner party with a few stuck-up assholes in the honour of his promotion. Bucky fucking hated it.

Luckily -or sadly, that was still up for debate- Peggy was there to keep him in line and to sneakily help him with what type of cutlery to use. ‘Luckily’ was currently winning.

He shared the table with a few old white men whom he did not know, not in the slightest and Peggy, Howard and Maria, Howards wife. Bucky knew Howard had a son, Anthony Stark. Barely 20 years old, and already all over the news with all kind of ‘scandals’. He’d seen Anthony a few times at other stupid parties and shit. Anthony always stood all dolled up in his father’s shadow, his hands behind his back and his head down. Never a hair out of place and always a cake-layer -is that what they called wearing a fuckton of makeup nowadays?- of foundation on his pretty face. Bucky wondered why someone hid their natural beauty -and Anthony was by far the most beautiful person Bucky had ever laid eyes on- behind so much gory shit. Don’t get him wrong, he was totally fine with makeup -on _everyone_ , just sayin’-, but he thought it a shame when someone wore _so much_ of it. He always got the feeling that they were hiding themselves behind it.

Anyway, that’s a side note. Getting back to the point, Anthony was always there, yet Bucky had never spoken to him, which he did not like at all. He’d would’ve loved to talk to Anthony, because Bucky was sure Anthony used his public image -that of being a playboy- as a mask to hide behind. Bucky had always been good at reading people, a skill that HYDRA had gladly enhanced. He could tell that Anthony wasn’t the indifferent teenager who got drunk on a daily basis and fucked around with everything and everyone. Bucky wasn’t saying that Anthony didn’t do that -because he did- but he was saying that it didn’t _make_ Anthony who he was. There was so much more to the young genius, and Bucky was dying to find out just _what_ exactly.

Bucky had thought that tonight’s dinner party would be the perfect opportunity to talk Anthony, but plot-twist, Anthony wasn’t present.

“You have a son.” Bucky said and it wasn’t a question. If he couldn’t talk to Anthony himself at least he could talk about him a little with Howard. Next to him, Peggy stilled. Bucky still hadn’t got used to the grey in her hair and the wrinkles upon her face.

“You know Anthony?” Howard asked, surprised that Bucky brought up his son at his promotion-dinner-party.

“No, not really. I’ve seen him with you a few times, but I never got the chance to talk to him.”

“Count yourself lucky.”

Peggy stiffened and Bucky put his fork down a little too hard, but before he could day anything, a door opened.

***

Tony was looking for Jarvis, Anna had said that he was in the dinner hall. He had left the room before she warned him not to go there.

Tony was looking at his phone as he pushed open the heavy doors. “Hey J. You got any idea where I left my Tri-Wing-screwdriver? Dum-E has gotten hold of the blender and is making a mess in the workshop and Howard _will_ kill me if I don’t get him to stop.”

Instead of an answer Tony heard cutlery drop. “J, you OK?”

He looked up and oh _fuck_ him. He’d forgotten about the stupid fucking thing Howard had tonight, and Tony had been _banned_ from basically half the house for the entirety of the night, with an extra ban from the dinner hall. He was in very deep shit…

 _What was that thing Howard had anyway?_ Tony thought. _Oh yeah, the dinner party in honour of the promotion of_ \- Tony’s eyes searched the room until he found his childhood crush -whom he might be crushing on again since he came back from the dead, but that was nobody’s business but his own- looking directly at him with a surprisingly kind look in his eyes. - _James fucking Barnes_ , Tony finished his thought. If the ground could swallow him right about now, that’d be great.

***

“Speak of the Devil,” Howard said.

Bucky turned to the door where he saw Anthony Stark. He was saying something, but Bucky wasn’t listening. Anthony was fucking adorable with his hair slightly too long, so it started to curl, with his oil-stained oversized MIT-hoodie and oil-stained faded ripped jeans. There was oil smeared over his face and all over his hands, there were even some drops of oil on his bare feet. He was looking at his phone and hadn’t yet noticed their presence.

“-and Howard _will_ kill me if I don’t get him to stop.”

Bucky only heard the last of what Anthony had been saying but it sure as fuck wasn’t comforting. Why would he refer to his father by his first name? And why would Howard kill him? And above all, why didn’t it sound like an exaggeration? Bucky frowned.

“J, you OK?” Anthony asked.

Anthony looked up when he heard Howard’s knife dropping to the floor. A terrified look spread across his eyes, but it was gone as fast as it had arrived. Anthony’s eyes halted at him and Bucky sent him a soft smile. Their -Bucky wouldn’t call it a ‘moment’ but what else was he gonna call it- moment was rudely interrupted by Howard.

“Anthony.”

A _dark_ look spread across Howard’s eyes and face. Bucky frowned again.

“While you here, the least you can do is introduce yourself to our guest of honour,” he pointed at Bucky. “Anthony, meet General-Director James Barnes.”

All of a sudden everyone was looking at him and Bucky didn’t like standing in the spotlights -not even before the war though very little people knew that- he’d much rather observe from the shadows. Bucky curled in on himself, but he felt Peggy’s hand on his metal one and he calmed down a bit. From the corner of his eye he could see Anthony making his way over to him and since his Ma had raised him right, Bucky got out of his chair and met Anthony halfway. He stretched out his hand and said: “Anthony Stark, it’s lovely to meet you,” he sent Anthony the most charming smile he could muster.

Anthony took his hand and shook it. “Pleasure to meet you too, General-Director Barnes.” He wouldn’t meet Bucky’s eyes as he spoke the words.

 _‘General-Director Barnes’?!_ Yeah, Bucky didn’t think so. “Oh no, please call me ‘Bucky’. I don’t much care for titles.”

Anthony looked up at him. For a split second his eyes flickered to his father. Bucky, with his supersoldier eyesight, saw Howard shake his head ever so slightly from the corner of his eye. Bucky frowned.

“I’m afraid that won’t be possible General-Director Barnes,” Anthony stated as if it was common knowledge.

Bucky’s frown deepened. “Why is that?”

“They’re titles you’ve earned, Director. You deserve to be addressed with them. Especially by someone like me.” Tony -Bucky didn’t know when ‘Anthony’ had become ‘Tony’- looked down again.

Before Bucky could ask what the fuck Tony was talking about, Tony cut him to it.

“It’s been a pleasure to meet you, General, but you will have to excuse me, I, err, have things I must attend to.” Tony shook his hand once again and with a nod of his head walked out of the room, leaving Bucky absolutely flabbergasted.

The remaining part of the night was a shitload more awkward; Bucky began to regret taking Howard up on his offer to stay over. But going back to D.C. was not possible now. Fuck him.

***

Bucky spent most of the night fretting about his encounter with Tony and how he just couldn’t shake the feeling that Tony’s weird politeness was somehow linked to Howard in a _very_ negative way.

Around 2AM Bucky got thirsty. Howard had said that if he needed anything during the night, he could ring a bell and Jarvis, the butler and the man Tony had been looking for, would come to his assistance. Bucky thought that to be _so much_ stuck-up _bullshit_ , it took all of his self-control -which was a lot after HYDRA- not to laugh at Howard right there and then. So, fuck no he was gonna do that, he would just walk to the kitchen to get a glass and fill it himself in his _own_ _bathroom_.

After a three-out-of-the-five-minute walk -Bucky had never walked five minutes to get from his room to the kitchen- Bucky heard yelling coming from the other end of the hallway. Bucky associated ‘yelling’ with ‘trouble’, an association he had to thank Steve for. So, without a second thought, Bucky ran to the room from which the yelling came.

When he reached the room, Bucky saw Howard towering over a trembling-with-fright Tony, who had fallen to the floor. He could hear Howard’s screams long before he could see him.

“One thing! I ask _one_ thing of you and you fuck it up! ‘Do not go to the dinner hall’. That’s what I asked of you. And what do you do? You _fucking_ walk in there rambling about that stupid fucking robot of yours! I had to answer so many questions to why I was such a strict parent because of that fucking thing you said! If you _ever_ pull another st-“ Howard was cut off by Bucky shoving him up the wall.

“What _the fuck_ do you think you’re doing?” Bucky’s eyes spat fire before turning icy cold.

Howard couldn’t answer for he was still catching his breath of the impact his back had made with the wall.

“What the fuck has happened to you? What has the world done to you, to treat your son like he’s nothing more than shit which got suck under your expensive new shoes?” Bucky shoved Howard further up the wall and looked at his former friend with absolute _disgust_.

Bucky felt small but rough hands upon his naked shoulders, trying in vain to get him off Howard.

“Pl-please don’t hurt my father. Pl-please, pl-please let him go!” Tony cried.

Bucky shoved Howard a little further. “You hear that? Even after you treat him like a piece of shit, he still begs me not to hurt you. And I will, for Tony’s sake. Even tough you deserve to have your head smashed _through_ this wall.”

He turned around and looked at Tony. In the moonlight, he could see a bruise flowering on Tony’s cheek. A new wave of fury washed over him. Bucky smashed Howard into the wall once again. “Did you touch him?!”

Howard didn’t respond.

“ _Did you?!_ ” Bucky gritted through his teeth.

Howard nodded ever so slightly. Bucky saw red.

“I just promised I wouldn’t hurt you, but believe me, if you ever hurt, touch, or even look at Tony funny, you will regret it. I can promise you that. You know who I am and what I’m capable of.” With that Bucky let go of Howard and wrapped a crying Tony into his arms.

“Shh, Doll, shh. It’s over. I’ve got you. You’re safe.”

***

“Stark! We need a plan of attack.”

“He did not just say that!” Bucky yelled over their personal comms. “Put me through, screw that, I’ll put my self through.”

Before Tony could say that that was a very bad idea, he heard Bucky’s voice over the communal comms: “Never! Not once in your life have you though of a plan, Stevie! And you ain’t about to start now.”

“ _Bucky?!_ ” Steve breathed his best friends name.

“Yeah punk, it’s me. Better question: is it you? Cuz my Stevie was to much of a punk to do plans.”

“Yeah, yeah Buck it’s me. But you- Here? How? I don’t understand-“

“I’ll explain later. Now go help my boyfriend,” Bucky ordered.

“Stark’s your boyfriend?!”

“Yeah, soon to be husband. Now get your ass movin’.”

“But what? I don’t-“

“I said, get your ass movin’, Steve!”

“Yes, Buck.” Steve jumped put of the airplane, he was smart enough to grab a parachute this time.

“Who the fuck was that?” Clint said over the comms.

“That,” Natascha cuffed Clint across the head, “was your Boss.”

“No way that was Fury,” Clint shook his head.

“No, not Fury. _The Boss_.”

“But Fury’s the Boss…”

“Clint, have you even _read_ the papers when you applied for the job? Or did you just sign them without even looking at them and just rolled with it from thereon?”

Clint had the decency to look a slightly ashamed.

Natascha shook her head at so much idiocy. “The voice you just heard,” she explained, “was none other than James Barnes. Cap’s best friend, who supposedly died in 1944, but didn’t. General in the army and the Head-Director of SHIELD. Long story short, he’s Fury’s Boss, which makes him _your_ Boss.”

Clint looked utterly confused.

“Don’t forget that I was the Winter Soldier for a while, am the White Wolf now, was a part of the Howling Commando’s and am soon to be married to Iron Man.” Bucky added over the comms.

“Wait, wait, wait, _wait_ ,” they heard Steve, “Buck, _you’re_ SHIELD’s Head-Director?! I _work_ for you and yet you haven’t spoken to me?!”

“I was gonna, but a few Norse Gods got in the way.”

“Speaking of which. James, honey, light of life, you know I love you but will you _please_ stop distracting us? We’re tryna catch bad guys here.”

“Blame Clint.”

“Hey!” Clinted shouted offendedly.

“Buck… that was uncalled for.”

“I’m your Boss, Steve, you can’t talk to me like that.”

“Now listen her-”

While the Avengers fought over the comms, Loki addressed his brother: “Brother, _please_ smash that Hammer of yours against my head. The incompetence of these petty creatures is a torture I cannot endure.”

***

Shortly after New York the two long lost friends met.

“Your hair has gotten long,” Steve said.

“Really Steve, ‘my hair has gotten long’?! I came back from the dead, have a metal arm, am 95-years-old and don’t look a day over 25 and yet what you say is that my _hair has gotten long_?!” Bucky burst out in tears and hugged Steve tied. “Fuck I missed you, Punk.”

Steve broke out in tears too, “I missed you too, Jerk.” Steve drew in a sharp breath. “I thought you were dead, Buck.”

“I thought you were dead too, Stevie.”

Steve freed himself from Bucky’s embrace. “You’ve finally found yourself a fella?” Steve asked even though it wasn’t really a question.

Bucky looked over to Tony and smiled. “Yeah, yeah, I have. And it’s a good thing it ain’t illegal no more either.”

“It ain’t?!” Steve asked surprised.

“No, it ain’t, Stevie, at least it ain’t here. I can finally be myself and it’s _OK_. For most part that it, there are always assholes who fuck everthin’ up.”

Steve chuckled, “At least your sailor mouth hasn’t changed. But that means that I can be myself too, right?”

Bucky laughed. “Fuck you too Stevie. But yeah, you don’t have to hide who you are no more. I don’t matter no more that you like men as much as women”

“At least somethin’ we fought for has made it into the future. For most part.”

“Yeah,” Bucky agreed, “for most part.”

“But Buck, you I gotta tell you, I don’t even understand how _I’m_ here, let alone how _you’re_ here. I mean, you died, you _fell_ …”

“It’s kind of a long story…” Bucky shrugged awkwardly.

“I’ve-I’ve got time,” Steve said hopefully.

Bucky smiled, “So do I.”


End file.
